I have a Plan

My kids are gone for the week to enjoy some time with Papa and Nana and attend their Vacation Bible School.  This is their first time attending and I am so excited for them!!  I know they will love it.

With that in mind, I have formulated a plan over the last several weeks to complete a few outstanding things I need to get done.  I thought I would list them here.  I'll still be babysitting this week - since I'm "working" anyway I decided I would "work" at home and get things done.

Here's the plan:

Monday and Tuesday - the focus is 100% the basement.  It really isn't as bad as I make it seem but I just need to reduce and de-clutter.  I will be going through every bin, box, bag and container.  There will be a few options: 1) Throw it away 2) Go directly to Good Will 3)Try selling on a local garage sale site (I will list it for one week - if it doesn't sell, it is going to Good Will) 4)Keep it because of whatever reason :-) With that in mind, here's the plan:
1) On Monday I will haul every container upstairs.  Yes, every single one.  I have picked up 4 of the new clear, locking lid bins that I found and want to use to store what I'm keeping.  Yes, I will also be reusing some of the old bins I have too but for things that are actually being "stored", I want clear bins so I can see what is in them.  Some of the other bins will be spray painted a certain color so I can spot what I need right away (I.e. All Christmas bins will be red)  I plan on sorting through the bins on Monday and, hopefully, spray painting some of the bins as well.  With all of the bins upstairs, it will make it easier to organize the odd piles that are sitting around in the basement and clean it to get ready to move the much fewer bins downstairs and also to move the desk from the "playroom" into the basement section. 

2) On Tuesday I want to clean the playroom/laundry room areas first.  With the desk moved out, I should be able to set up the playroom area to be used as is for now and then I can work on making it more fun at a later date.  Then I will finish putting stuff back together on the other side of the basement so it is neat, organized and easy to find things.  I also plan to have one or two bins to use as drop points so that when something goes down there, it has a home.  That has been half the problem!! 

3) If there is time, I will list some of the things I want to sell - if not, that will have to wait a few days. 

We'll skip Wednesday for now :-)

My other goals are packing up some stuff in the classroom so that we can get ready to pull up old carpet and put down some new-to-us carpet; cleaning and doing some rearranging in the living room; cleaning the boys room.

1. Thursday - My first focus will be the boys room and Living room.  These two rooms are much easier to clean when my kids are gone :-)  I have plans for toy storage in their room but for now I just need to take time to sort through toys, remove broken or out-grown toys and make sure that everything is matched up again and has a home.  The same idea goes for the living room too.  I'm hoping to do some rearranging but we'll see.  If there is time today, I will also do some work in the classroom :-)

2.  Friday - I'll finish up anything from Thursday, including the classroom.  Then I want to focus on prepping school lessons.  I'd like to finish up the next 3 weeks worth of lessons for Josh specifically so everything is ready to grab.  Then, if time, I'll work on the first 3 lessons for the other two boys.  My goal is to always have the next 6 weeks of lessons complete and ready to go before that 6 weeks starts.  It doesn't always work but if I can at least be ahead, that is a good thing :-)

I'll let you know how it all goes in a post next week :-)